After announcing that WWDC21 has been scheduled to kick off online beginning June 7, 2021, Apple has refreshed its official app for developers with a new look and feel.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS:
- The Apple Developer app gets a new look and feel.
- Available on the iPhone, iPad and Mac.
- It uses Apple’s Catalyst framework.
A revamped Discover tab
“We’ve made improvements to the look and feel of the Developer app across iPhone, iPad, and Mac to help you enjoy articles, videos, news and announcements, as well as past WWDC content,” the company wrote in release notes accompany the app’s version 9.0 update.
The Discover tab has been updated on macOS Big Sur with improved support for larger Mac displays to make better use of the available screen real estate. Additionally, the search feature has been improved across platforms to make it “easier to find the content you want to watch.”
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On iPads, the app now lets you navigate the content faster using the new sidebar feature for apps that was rolled out to developers with the release of iPadOS 14 last year.
Aside from those improvements, the new release extends login session duration, fixes bugs and adds various other enhancements. Available across the iOS, iPadOS, macOS and tvOS platforms, the software also includes a dedicated iMessage app.
A sign of Catalyst improvements?
The Apple Developer app lets you read check out developer news, browse various features, read programming stories and watch WWDC sessions, keynotes and other videos, including those from past events. You can also download videos to watch offline.
Catalyst is built using Apple’s Catalyst software framework for porting existing iPadOS apps over to macOS without having to redesign the user interface from scratch. However, Catalyst still isn’t perfect at converting all iPadOS user interface controls into their macOS counterparts.
Apple will likely advance Catalyst at this year’s WWDC, which kicks off with a keynote on June 7 and will be hosted in an all-online format similar to last year’s conference.